I've Caved
by TogetherSomewhere
Summary: THIS IS A REWRITE OF MY FIRST SQ STORY, CAVING IN. After Regina absorbs the death curse to save Emma and Snow from being killed by it, it takes a terrible toll on her body. Everybody has lost their trust in the former Evil Queen, even it seems her son and Emma. She just wished she had someone with her, instead of dying alone. Perhaps her wish will come true after all.(SlowBurn)
1. Chapter one

_**Hello my lovely readers, so after revising some of my old stories I discovered how poorly I have really written my first ever SQ story, and to celebrate that my life is finally going well again, I decided to rewrite my oldest story; Caving In, by doing a complete rewrite of it as I have said before. For the people that have not read my first story, you probably shouldn't it isn't that good, but if you want to read the original, you would still make me really happy.**_

 _ **Anyways to explain a bit about the story, After Regina has absorbed the death curse that was put upon the well, it has consequences that are not for the good, at first...**_

 **Enjoy!**

 **x Muriel.**

Chapter One

Regina felt like she was being eaten from the inside. It felt like there was a fire raging inside of her and it was slowly melting all of her organs, one by one shutting them down and making her feel even more horrible than she already felt. It had been going on for two weeks already.

She had been enduring two weeks of retching her stomach out, legs that hardly were able to bear her weight, a head that was ready to explode from all the pounding, and then her insides that truly felt like they were slowly melting away, like the wax from a candle.

Her head was held by her trembling fingers, sweat pouring from her head, though her clammy hand wasn't much of a help. She hadn't looked in the mirror for ten days, since she actually felt a kind of fear inside of her for what she would see if she did. Would she see that her face had molten itself to her skull as all the fat that was in her face had now gone?

She knew she was losing a horrible amount of weight, for all her clothes seemed to be getting more and more spacious. Not that she was elaborately dressing herself in her normal mayoral outfits though, she hadn't the energy for it. She just rotated between her five sets of almost identical silk pyjamas, and when they were all dirty she used the little scrap of magic she still had in her, that the curse hadn't eaten away when she absorbed it, to clean them all and start all over again.

She shouldn't be using magic, not when Henry had told her she couldn't, not when she had promised she wouldn't, but she couldn't walk around in dirty and sweaty clothes. She was a queen once, and a bit more refined than that. She may not carry the title anymore, but she still felt like it sometimes.

The evil queen, the woman everybody feared so much they didn't dare to hate her, or they hated her so much there was barely any fear left to have for the woman, but those also had no room for the courage to do something with their hate. Or they had enough room for both and thus harboured Snow White in their midst to defy their Queen.

The insipid girl that yet again, was to blame for the situation she was now in. If it hadn't been for Snow jumping in after her daughter, perhaps she could have joined Emma and made their way back after she herself had ended her mother. Yes, that would have been so much better.

If she had been able to just join Emma into the hat, there wouldn't have been any problems. She was sure of it. The idiotic Snow and her Charming genes that of course couldn't let her daughter go, even though she had already done so once.

Regina scoffed slightly at the idea of Snow admitting that, but just doing that sent another wave of terrible nausea throughout her whole body, if that was even possible, and her grip tightened on the banister of the stairs. Her knuckles turning white in their strain to keep her upright as her stability she had just found moments ago, seemed lost. Her hand on her head now going to her sternum in a try to keep herself from throwing up once again.

The only thing she had eaten had been some dry crackers and she had had some water to wash it down with and keep her from dehydrating. Though that didn't really matter, she knew she was dying anyways, might as well happen by being dehydrated, right?

There was a knocking sound echoing through the house and it took Regina while to recognize that it wasn't her head that had started pounding harder and harder, but that someone was actually knocking on her door.

Someone was knocking on her door? Nobody had tried to gain contact with her after she had saved Emma and Snow from the death curse, after she had gotten a hasty little hug from Henry that she had clung to like her life had depended on it. Then he had happily let go, almost as if he had been relieved that the hug was done. His obligatory part as son of hers completed and now he could be with his "real" mother. His biological mother. Something she could never be.

Her mind flashed back to when she had taken that potion. That potion that stole her chance of ever getting a child. She had taken that potion because of her mother, another culprit in the case of how she came to be here slowly dying of the curse of Rumple and hers. If there hadn't been the threat of her mother, there hadn't even been a problem.

Or if Henry hadn't begged for the life of Emma, of his damned _real_ mother. If he hadn't done that, she wouldn't be here dying. But yet she couldn't somehow shove the blame onto either him or Emma, something was holding her back from that. She didn't want to dive deeper into the fact of why she couldn't blame Emma, Henry was obvious because he was her son and she loved him beyond anything she could have imagined, but Emma was a whole different story, and yet there wasn't any blame on her.

She painfully moved down the stairs, walking down the three more steps she hadn't done minutes ago, and walked to the door. Her legs were protesting against the movement, against the activity of walking since her body had no fuel to draw its energy from that it needed to walk.

The knocking persisted and it wasn't helping the headache that she was sporting at all. Not even close to it, really. 'I'm coming, I'm coming' She weakly said, her voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper after the vomiting had made her whole throat raw and bloody. When she opened the door though, she gasped softly.

'Henry? What are you doing here?'


	2. Chapter Two

_**Hello, thanks so much for the many follows and favs, it mean a lot to me! I really hope you will like this chapter that is a bit late, I know...**_

 _ **Enjoy reading, and tomorrow you will get another chapter :)**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

Chapter two

'Uhm… Well I forgot my favourite comic book, so can I like come in and get it from my old room?' Henry said, not even sparing a second glance at his adoptive mother as he brushed past her, which almost sent her toppling over.

Henry ran up the stairs, she wanted to say _no running on the stairs!_ but she knew it would fall on deaf ears, and perhaps her voice would then betray how she was really feeling. Perhaps it would betray; that within another two weeks, she would be lying lifelessly on the floor having struggled for her last breath, and now no more would come again.

She felt a hollow throb in her heart for the way Henry hadn't even spared her one single look. Hadn't even given her a single second of eye contact. Not a minute of conversation. She hadn't seen him at all in two weeks, and not much in the week before, and yet that didn't matter to henry, well if Regina looked at it now she was almost certain that Henry has lost the capability to care for her.

The shouts of how terribly evil she was, how she didn't love him, couldn't love him because she was nothing but an evil queen. The thing that had hurt the most out of everything though, was that he had shouted that she wasn't his mother. That she, after ten years of raising him with nothing but love, he had claimed that she had never been his mother.

That was the thing that had broken her. That had shattered her walls and had made her cry her eyes out when she found herself alone in her mansion.

'Mom, are you alright. Normally you aren't in your pyjamas anymore at this time.' Henry says when he comes back down to the foyer where she had stood the whole time he had been looking for his comics. It was weird that his mother hadn't followed him upstairs, or really said a word to him…

'Yes my dear, but since they do not want me as a mayor anymore, I have found that there isn't much reason to change into my normal clothes.' Regina said, her voice a painful raw thing, now sounder lower than her voice normally even was. If Henry noticed, he didn't say anything as he gave her a quick nod and then with a slight awkward pause looked at her once more before he stormed out of her house and grabbed his bike before racing off back to the apartment he shared with his _real_ mother and his grandparents.

The grandparents that had ruined her, that had made her existence on this world a sufferable experience. And then those bastards _dared_ to say that she was the only evil one here. The only one to blame for the situation they were in right now. They had such a hero complex, they couldn't even see it when they were doing something that was far from good.

Why had Henry really come along though? If he really needed those comics couldn't his new, and of course much better family, have bought those three comics for him? It didn't make sense to her why he would need to barge in, brush past her without granting her a single glance, before suddenly pretending like he cared for her again.

Was this something the _Charmings_ had given him? Was this an elaborate way to pie on her so she wouldn't plan anything evil? They all knew she would never deny Henry entrance to her house. They knew she would always be hoping for the return of her son with her. So was this a cruel way to show her the power they had over her, that they could make her own son spy on her?

That must be it. That must be the reason for the short visit of her son. Had he looked through different rooms while she had been downstairs trying not to collapse. She was sure that she wouldn't have heard it if he had done so, because her head was pounding so hard she could hardly make any other sounds out anyways.

Would her son truly betray her like that though? Was all so far lost that he would do that? Perhaps for his new mother he would. He would still view her as bad, and of course with those operations of his, she was certain this hadn't been the first time she had been betrayed by her own son. Someone she had given all the love she had in her for ten whole years.

Regina decided that perhaps if she made a trip to his room, she could have a look at what he had really taken, if he had really only come here for the comics, or perhaps for more and she just hadn't seen him taking anything else.

She wasn't at her sharpest at the moment, so that could be a reason for her missing any of the obvious clues that he had taken more with him.

She looked up at the stairs and felt her heart drop. She could barely walk, god, how would she even be able to climb up the stairs again? This would be an impossible task that could perhaps take hours to complete. But then again, she literally had a whole day to do it. There wasn't much else that there was to be done here on her own.

She really was drowning in her own self-pity and self-loathing, and if she had been healthy or in a right state of mind she would have laughed out loud at the idea of it. That she would ever get this bad, but now she couldn't do much else as her only social contact was herself…

When, after three whole hours, she had actually reached Henry's room and she took it in. first she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, except for a knocked over stack of comics. But then she missed something. The little teddy bear that Henry had had with him his entire life since his first birthday when she had given him the thing. Was that truly the real reason that he had come here. For something she had given him?

It made her heart flutter just to think about the possibility of that truth.


	3. Chapter three

_**Have fun reading,**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

Chapter Three

'Ma, have you seen my mom lately?' Henry asks as he walks into the apartment and hurries to his bed where he quickly hides the teddy bear he had taken with him from his old bedroom. He didn't want Emma to see the real reason he had gone over to his old house. He had wanted a remembrance from when he was little. That was it. It wasn't like he missed his other mother or anything. Nope.

'Uhm I don't think I have ever since she helped me and Mary Margaret from that well.' Emma answered as she looked at Henry when he emerged from his little makeshift room that had been hastily made in the apartment to give the boy some sort of bedroom that he wouldn't have to share with his mother or grandparents.

'Oh, could you check up on her then. I'm worried she uh, that she might be up to something. I mean radio silence for that long must mean something bad right?' Henry said and plopped down on the couch before her got the remote to the TV and started aping through the channels to find something fun to watch.

'But haven't you seen her when you went to pick up those comics?' Emma asked confused at why her son suddenly wanted her to check up on the former mayor of this town. The mother that had taken care of her son for ten whole years, that had given him a huge home and love…

She still didn't get why Henry had chosen her as his mother. The one that was supposed to take care of him. She had thanked her lucky stars that Henry hadn't gotten sick or injured himself, because she had never been good at consoling people. She wouldn't have a clue on how to do that for Henry, and shouldn't a mother have like… maternal instincts or something?

'Nah, I hadn't really seen her.' He lies very convincingly. 'I heard her in her room somewhere if I heard that correctly.' He adds while he finally settles on a watching _Pirates of the Caribbean._ He looked up at his blonde mother as he saw the conflicting emotions flicker through her face, he sighed.

'Could you just please do it for me. I don't want anyone in the town thinking the same thing and storming in there. You don't want her dead. I think the rest of the town does want that very much.' He said to persuade his mother.

Emma nodded slightly in agreement. 'Yeah, okay that's true. I do think I should go round her place shouldn't I?' Emma said more to herself than to Henry, and he knew it so he kept his mouth shut for the time being, letting Emma talk herself into it. It was something he had noticed she did sometimes when she wasn't certain of why she should do something or if she should do it at all. He found it rather humorous to watch the progress of her caving and then doing said thing anyways.

'Perhaps you should go now.' Henry hinted and Emma nodded softly before she got up from the couch as well and out of the apartment.

She rushed down the flight of stairs wondering what the hell Regina could be up to in the two weeks she hadn't seen the woman. Had she been planning to kill the whole town? To make an escape? She couldn't stop her mind from reeling with all kind of ideas as to what Regina could be up to.

It was strange to think about the woman in a way other than a meddlesome mayor, even though she had seen the Evil Queen take over sometimes, the fames in those deep brown eyes swallowing her whole and making the air fill with sparks, or that was what it felt like for Emma.

Emma couldn't imagine that Regina would ever be anything less than something as strong as the mayor. In her head Regina had become this sort of invincible force that could hardly be fought.

But then again, did it really have to be fought? Couldn't they perhaps cooperate? She doubted that Regina had ever been truly given the chance to amicably work with someone without any strings attached. Something in the way the woman behaved, hinted at that.

That, and of course the massive storybook that gave her some clues as of how Regina her past really was. What if Emma hadn't taken such a hostile approach from the get go.

If she looked at it logically it had been horrible of her what she had done, since the adoption had been a closed one and it had been perfectly legal. Which meant that how she had taken Henry away from Regina without permission, was her breaking the damned law. Regina had literally only been fighting to keep her son by her side, and yet Emma ad been blind to that back then,

Emma had been blinded by the fact that she had a son. That lived. And he wanted her. He chose her, and that was something she hadn't really experienced. And instead of thinking about the other woman, and thinking about the legal rights she had, she had storm waltzed into Regina her life, and had taken Henry with her without thinking about the damaged that would do to the woman that had been a mother to her son for over ten years, while she hadn't even been a mother for more than a day.

Now that she looked back at it, she really was kind of an asshole.

She arrived at the mansion, and then without having too much hopes of the door actually opening when she knocked, she knocked and waited.


	4. Chapter Four

_**Hey guys, thanks so much for the 50 follows and all the amazing reviews, it really encourages me to keep on going with this rewrite!**_

 _ **anyways, if there are any mistakes in this I do apologize, I have barely slept in the last days and I'm a little less sharp.**_

 _ **anyways, enjoy!**_

 _ **x Muriel.**_

Chapter four

Regina, right when Henry left and had pulled herself out of her musings, had dragged herself to the toilet to throw up. The turmoil of just that simple visit from henry had shaken her up, and had made her body into an even worse mess than it already was, or that was what it felt like as she only brought up gall and blood, since there had been nothing left in her stomach anymore.

Her throat was burning by the time it finally stopped and she was biting back tears at the hopelessness of this whole situation and she felt like she should just give up. Yes, Henry had come around and perhaps, if she fetched really far, it meant that he missed at least some part of her, but was that really enough?

Was that little shred of hope really enough to hold onto to fight this? She wished that the curse would just strike now and kill her so she wouldn't have to fight, either that or let her go of its slowly killing grip so she could live. So she could do something else than just sit back and suffer at its poisonous hands.

Then there was another knock on the door. _Wait what?_ There was another knock, and she was almost certain she wasn't hallucinating, which had happened earlier this week when she had had a really bad day and had made the mistake of drinking some alcohol instead of just keeping to her water.

She got up from the bathroom floor with a painful groan that came out as a sort of cracked whisper as her throat had been so damaged her voice wouldn't even properly come out. Her legs trembled underneath her, but as she held onto any stable object that passed her path to the door, they held her weight well enough for her to finally make it to the foyer and open the door.

Would she see Henry again? Did he want to see her, say that he missed her and wanted to come back? Perhaps he wanted to tell her that he had forgiven her for her mistakes that that he was sorry for the way he had handled the situation as well. Her heart got a little sliver of hope inside of it as she swung her door open, only to be met with the Sheriff of the town. Her heart sank in her chest and she chastised herself for even daring to have hope that Henry would have a heart forgiving enough to forgive her for her unforgivable actions.

'Shit Regina, you look like crap, do you have the flu or something?' Emma said the moment she took in the trembling woman in front of her. Her skin an almost ashen grey, sweat beading on her forehead as her brow eyes seemed bloodshot from lack of sleep. Her cheeks hollow from rapid weight loss and her hair was a mess. And the weirdest thing was just that she was still in her pyjamas.

Regina always looked so strong and unbreakable, but now she seemed so fragile that a gust of wind could blow her apart. Emma felt a sort of fear rush through her at the sight of the once so strong mayor like this.

Regina opened her mouth to answer but nothing but a high wheezing sound would come out of her throat and she huffed at that, annoyed at her body's failures. She saw Emma's look go from a little sympathetic to actual worry and pity for the situation Regina now found herself in, what infuriated Regina to no end, and if she had had enough power in her arms she would have slammed the door in Emma's face.

Unfortunately, she really hadn't it already cost her all the energy that she still possessed to stand u right and not collapse to the floor, or perhaps fall into Emma if she completely lost control. Her legs were already screaming at her, telling her that the longer she would stand there, the more chance she had that she would break down right there and hit the ground at full force. Could her body still even take an impact like that?

'can I perhaps come in? I'm feeling a little tired and perhaps I could sit down a while?' Emma tried. She already knew from the pure anger in Regina her face that she wouldn't accept it if she had suggested that she should sit down or rest. The body language of Regina told her thought that she was hardly even standing up anymore.

Emma took it upon herself though, not waiting for an answer because she figured that Regina still wouldn't be able to get a word out other than a high pitched sound and she walked into the house and to the living room where she sat down in a very comfortable couch and almost melted into the soft cushions of it.

Regina looked strangely at Emma as she walked into her house without her even having answered Emma's question. She didn't want to waste any energy though, so she followed Emma to the living room. Not as smoothly as she had wished it went, since she stumbled at least twice and once almost toppled to the floor when her knees failed her, but she made it and sat down on the couch.

Emma just watched to woman from where she had sat down and worry truly settled inside of her as she saw the once so regal looking woman stumble and almost fall through her own house just to get to her living room to sit next to her. It was horrible to look at and she almost felt bad for not helping, but she knew that her hep wouldn't be very much appreciated, since she knew from earlier days that Regina had loathed accepting it.

She probably thought it would make her look weak. Though now, Emma knew she would have to get Regina to somehow accept help, because it looked like the woman wouldn't make it for long if she wouldn't…


	5. Chapter Five

_**Please enjoy,**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

Chapter Five

'Why are you here?' Regina rasped in an almost inaudible voice that made her throat burn even more horribly, and she calmly looked over to Emma. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and her eyes were a little squinted from her headache, that got worse and worse the more she had to strain to look at least a little healthy to Emma

'Because I haven't heard anything from you in two weeks, and I was curious as to what you were up to.'

'What because you were afraid I might plan something to take this town over again?' Regina challenged as she looked at Emma with a flare of anger in her eyes. No matter how sick she was feeling, and perhaps how close she was to death, she wasn't about to back down to Emma. She wasn't going to be weak.

'No. Regina you don't always have to expect the worst from me okay? I'm not my parents that immediately think the most horrible things from you. I just wanted to check up on how you were doing. Absorbing that curse for me and Mary Margaret must have been tough.' Emma said as she looked at Regina, she didn't really expect an honest answer, since well, that wasn't what Regina was like, but she had to ask.

'Why are you asking that?' Regina shot back defensively and her heart pounded ever faster in her chest if that was possible, almost ready to burst at Emma's question. Did she know? Is that why she came? To see Regina when she was weak and then perhaps strike her down at to have Henry all to herself?

That must be it. Regina must be imagining the thing lose to care in Emma's eyes for her. That care for her doesn't exist anymore in anyone in this town, she was certain of that. She had done too many unforgivable things to ever be considered to be cared for by someone. That was just plain logic, right?

'Because you look like shit Regina, you look like death warmed up, or perhaps lukewarm since completely warmed up is even too positive a name for it.' Emma said. Regina apparently needed a reality check and Emma wasn't one to beat around the bush.

'I just got sick, that's all. Now since you know how I'm doing, I think it is time for you to leave my house. I will be just fine without you spying on me for you parents, thank you.' Regina said, her voice getting weaker and more fragile with every syllable said. The ache in her head grew to one that she could barely bear, and she didn't want Emma to see her collapse.

'No.'

'No? What do you mean, "No"?! This is my house.' Regina said, her voice now barely there. Regina feared that the next word she would utter wouldn't even be audible anymore. She would just have to rely on her glares to get the message across to Emma.

Emma though, noticed that Regina her normally smooth as velvet voice was a raspy mess that must hurt to use, for it looked like it was a great effort just to speak. 'No, I'm not leaving. Not until I know what is happening to you and perhaps how I can help cure it. You don't deserve to be this ill. 'Henry asked me to come around okay? He came here to get his comic books, or well that is what he used as a cover for whatever he really picked up from here, and since our son, and I worry about you and your health, could you tell me what is going on for Henry his sake, if not for mine or yours?' Emma asked. She didn't want Henry to grow up without the person that had raised him for his first ten years of life.

She knew that now the novelty about her was what kept Henry at her side, but as soon as Henry would see how incredibly incapable she was for the role of a mother, she was sure Henry would want Regina again. that he would want his mother again to take care of him, and not some stupid birthmother that wasn't really good for anything but, apparently, saving a town from curses.

Perhaps she could save Regina from this curse, because even if Regina hadn't confirmed it, she had been somewhat of a detective as a bail bondsperson, or well, she had some moments that came very close to being like one of those detectives from TV that always ran after the bad guys while cracking an impossible case.

Anyways, she was _sure_ that she was correct in her predicament, because what else could make the former mayor look like this? A simple flu or other illness would never look as severe as this that could come in such a short time and wreck the once strong body like this. Somehow it just felt so wrong to see Regina reduced to this. She truly wanted to help the woman in front of her in any way she could, and she was sure as hell going to try.

'Fine,' Regina started in a whisper. 'The curse that I had absorbed to save you and your mother at Henry's request is now killing me.' Regina rasped softly a she looked at Emma and she was gathering every little scrap of magic she had left in her body, mentally scraping at all the little bits throughout her whole system until she felt she had enough.

'Now I would like you out of my house.' Regina stated coldly and then teleported Emma out of the living room. But since her magic wasn't even strong enough to teleport her completely outside of the house, it just got Emma to the foyer, but since that was out of sight, Regina was happy enough with the result of the blonde that had been removed from her sight.


	6. Chapter Six

**_Hey, so I didn't have the time to update yesterday, since i have a few really important tests today._**

 ** _Anyways, the upcoming week my updates will be sporadic as well since i will be getting an exchange student in my house for a whole week. ANd not to sound cheesy, but if you review, it might make me motivated enough to write a bit more or update more._**

 **Enjoy,**

 **x Muriel**

Chapter six

The magic she had performed though, made her head spin, her heart seemed to have skipped a few beats as if the energy to keep it beating wasn't there anymore. All her muscle burned like she had just done a workout of at least three hours long, when she had just used some simple magic.

It was like she had just sped up the process of her death. As if the curse had taken this moment of incredible weakness in her body and had latched onto her to make it worse. It felt as if all the muscles in her body were dissolving and she groaned in pain, a lone tear rolling down her cheek as it did. This curse was worse than any other torture she had ever had the displeasure of enduring.

 _Regina her little chubby legs carried her as she ran through the long grass, a happy giggle bubbled out of her as the wolf cheerfully followed her and bounced around her. Yapping happily as the pup followed her little mistress around._

 _'_ _Come one Ravenna! Keep up!' Regina cried out with mirth as she began running as fast as her legs could bear and the pup bounded after her, the deep black coat shining in the sun as the mud around them rose up in the air from their running._

 _Regina made the grave mistake of not paying enough attention while running and her once pristine white dress, was now covered in large brown marks. She hadn't noticed yet, as she was playing with the wolf pup her father had given her on her fifth birthday, just four weeks ago, but they had already become good buddies, much to her mother's displeasure._

 _The wolf was her friend, since she wasn't allowed to even have contact with the peasants that lived near her. She wasn't allowed that bit of her childhood, but thanks to her father, she was allowed the joys of having a pet as her friend, and she was going to enjoy it as much as she could. Her father had even let her name the female pup, and she named it after a woman in the stories he had read her._

 _She was so immensely happy with this afternoon free from her tutor. Her father that had managed to convince her mother, that because she had done so well in her previous lessons she was allowed one single afternoon free._

 _When she finally returned to the mansion she was met with a fury mother and then a magic hold that constrained her chest and lifted her up in the air, a scream leaving her lips. Her big brown eyes glazing over with tears. This was happening more and more often now, than not. But she couldn't get used to the feeling of a dark gip around her that pushed al the air out of her lungs._

 _'_ _You got your dress dirty, and you are late for teatime. And…' Cora angrily began and then waited for Regina to finish the sentence she had drilled into her since three years old._

 _'_ _A good lady nevew misses hew teatime, fow missing teatime is wude and would imply that you do not take the wole as a lady sewiously.' Regina said, still having trouble pronouncing the 'r' correctly which, of course, only added more fuel to the raging fire that was her mother's fury._

 _'_ _And what do bad girls not deserve?' Her mother asked her and immediately Regina began pleading, because she already got what her mother was implicating. Her companion would be taken away from her as punishment. She was certain of it._

 _An hour later Regina was frozen by her mother's magic, not able to blink for the magic forced her to watch how they first tortured the beast. Her mother had told her that if she wanted the suffering to stop, she just had to say so and the beast's life would be ended painlessly._

 _How though? How could she order the death of he only friend she had ever possessed. She cried out, screamed, sobbed and in the end, after almost an hour of torture she, a girl of just five, recognised she was being selfish to let the animal live and she said the words that made the cries of the wolf, turn into complete and utter silence._

 _Just her sobs and a cold murmur of 'That is how a good girl behaves.' From her mother broke the silence and she felt so guilty that she had caused the death of Ravenna. She had been tortured by seeing the wolf being handled like that and knowing that this was what happened to her friends._

Emma watched from the kitchen how Regina seemed to be lost in her memories, tears freely rolling over the sunken cheeks, and she soft sobs that pleaded for her mother to stop, broke Emma's heart.

She might have once asked how Regina ever came to be the way that she was, so cold and controlling, but now she had a rather good guess of what had caused her to be like this.

Of course she didn't know anything for certain, and she still knew that Regina really rather not have her help, but seeing the woman so fragile made her really see how steep the walls were that had built itself around Regina her heart.


	7. Chapter seven

_**Hey guys, school has been really overwhelming and I still have five more finals to go before I am actually done with school for this year, but here is a new chapter anyways, because it has already been far too long!**_

'Regina, you're safe. I've got you.' Emma says softly as she held Regina that almost toppled down towards the floor. It had only taken her seconds and a few strides to close the distance between them, and she sank down to the floor and pulled a trembling Regina into her lap.

The fallen Queen felt so small in her hold, and so incredibly light, Emma wondered how it was possible for her to still be alive and walking. Or well how she was alive and walking, since it seemed Regina's body had probably officially given up. It looked like it at least.

Emma softly caressed an ashen grey cheek and brushed away a few stray hairs from Regina her face. She was as gentle as she could with the woman hat felt like she was fading from her faster than she could save.

She was _the_ Saviour. She should be capable enough to be able to save the woman in her arms, and she was racking her brain for a solution, but instead she found nothing. There was nothing that she could come up with, and she really didn't feel like asking Gold, he would only cause more trouble. She was the person this whole town looked up to when there was evil looming, but she couldn't even save the person that was in the biggest need for it, because of her own petty feelings before this.

She hadn't cared much for Regina; she had been blinded with jealousy over the fact that this woman had gotten the chance to raise her son. And when she was told that this was the evil queen, even before she knew it to be true, in her head it somehow felt justified to have Henry at her side instead of at the Queen's side.

It felt justified to deny Regina access to the boy that she had raised for nearly eleven years on her own, even when she had had no legal claim to Henry, Snow, her mother, made it all sound so logical, so justified, that she had lost herself and hadn't thought about how she was being incredibly cruel to the woman that now lay unconscious in her arms.

She had enabled Henry into ignoring and mistreating the woman that had raised him since he was just a few weeks old, because of something a book said, and she wanted to make it up. She had wanted to fix the damage she had caused, but in thinking like that she found there was another feeling she had for Regina. Feelings she hadn't wanted to admit she had.

Seeing her like this though, so close to the brink of death, made her feelings only more clear. She couldn't lose Regina; she really didn't want to lose her. And this wasn't only so because it would wreck her son, no. Their son. It was also because she couldn't stand the idea of not seeing the snarky woman around town anymore.

She couldn't think of a life where she wouldn't see those expressive and deep brown eyes wouldn't cross hers once more, or have a sparkle of pride every time Henry did something.

'Regina, please don't give up. Keep fighting. I need you to keep fighting.' Emma whispered softly and pressed a kiss to Regina's forehead. Somewhere deep inside of herself, she had hoped that this kiss would work like the one her parents shared when they broke the curse on this town, but nothing happened.

She only felt a little tingle. A warm feeling. Like she was just wrapped in a warm blanket and placed in front of a hearty fireplace. A little shimmer moved over Regina's skin and she looked in wonder as Regina slightly stirred.

It might now have been the full blown kiss, with the rainbow waves coming off of them, but there was something magical happening between them. She knew it for sure when two brown eyes met her, as they sparkled with white gold magic.

Emma knew that Regina her magic was purple so she wondered, was this something outside of her power, or was it Emma herself that was causing that? She didn't really think it through too much as Regina tried to move out of Emma's hold. Fuck that woman was stubborn even on the brink of death.

'Regina please, let me help you.' Emma pleaded softly and Regina's eyes looked slightly surprised at the genuine emotion behind Emma's words. It felt like Emma didn't just want to help because Henry asked to, there was something behind the plea that made Regina calm and relax in Emma's hold again.

'What do you get out of helping me?' She croaked out, her voice raw and almost inaudible, but because of the complete silence in the house, Emma heard her and felt her heart ache a little.

She realised that every time Regina had been helped by someone, it was always for their gain, never just out of the goodness of their hearts, or because they wanted Regina to really feel better.

'Nothing. I get nothing out of doing it apart from seeing you get better. That is all I want. All Henry wants' Emma quickly adds. Hiding behind her son, real fucking cowardly done Emma, she mentally berates herself as she keeps her eyes connected to the brown ones of Regina, that are still shimmering with white gold magic.

'What?' Regina asked confused and furrowed her brow. She couldn't really move to look at Emma better, since her body wouldn't let her, even if there was this sort of healing feeling pulsing through her body at the moment.

'I want nothing but you getting better. Henry can't lose his mother.' _And I can't lose you_ She wishes she was brave enough to add, but perhaps that would scare Regina away.

'Okay.' Regina said softly. She knew she would have trouble letting Emma in and help her, but actually having someone to help her through this, is something she hadn't even dared to wish for in her wildest dreams, and yet someone was here for her. Wanted to give their unwavering support. And of course she couldn't ever say no to those striking emerald eyes.


	8. Chapter Eight

_**Hello everybody, i'm late with this chapter, SORRY!**_

 _ **I have found myself really busy, and I am trying out a new story called 'The Lake', it is SQ as i always write, and for now I am not sure if I will continue it or not, so please check it out and tell me what you think of it!**_

 _ **Happy reading!**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

 _ **Chapter eight**_

'Emma, what are you doing to me?' Regina asked softly. She felt her whole body tingle again and for once had a little less trouble hanging on to the last shreds of life that she kept within her. A breath of new life filled her lungs and gave the much needed oxygen to every single cell in her body. It felt so good to not feel like she was suffocating every single second of every single day for two weeks.

Emma shrugged softly as she rubbed her fingers over Regina's pale knuckles while she looked at the small body that was buried in the blankets of a luxurious bed. She had carried Regina to her bed when she had felt the woman relax in her hold, and she herself felt comfortable enough to enter the bedroom of Regina.

'I have to go check on Henry though. He will want to know how you are doing.' Emma informed Regina and she nodded in response to let Emma know she had heard her. Emma gave her a little smile in response and then looked the woman once over for the last time. 'I'll be back in no time.' She hurried to say and then she left Regina's large mansion to make her way back to the loft.

Thirty minutes later Regina heard the door open, and felt a little flutter rush through her body, Emma hadn't lied, she had come back for her. Her body wouldn't let her move, she felt completely paralysed, except for the fact that she could still move her eyes and her head a little. Her body just felt too tired, too painful to move, so she gave her the rest to let her body heal a little with the magic from Emma that was still ricocheting through her body.

'Hello Regina dear.' She heard a vicious voice call out, the voice of her nightmares that had always made her wake with tears rolling down her cheeks and sleepless night after that. How could she be here? She had sealed the well right? That was why she was in the state she was, she had absorbed the curse but after Emma and Snow had come through, shouldn't it have been impossible for her mother to come through?

She couldn't answer her mother. Her voice wouldn't work with her as her eyes took the woman in with fear. The mother that had tortured he, had punished her, had never loved her or told she was proud of her. And yet still, even now she felt the great need to make her mother proud of her, to make her worthy of the love of her mother. A love her mother had never given her, and one she longed for. A mother she had made sure that was dead once. A mother that had terrorized not only her but everyone the poisonous woman came in contact with. Her touch one that would rot, and tongue that was pure venom.

And still Regina wanted her love so incredibly badly, because she was still her mother.

'I take it you are in this state, because you were as foolish as always hmm?' Her mother said scolding her, and brushed a stray hair away from Regina her face, and Regina immediately felt a nasty, dark ripple pulse through her body from where her mother had touched her skin. The pure, warm feeling Emma had gifted her, was being eradicated by the venom is the touch of her mother. A touch that she still wanted more from as long as it wasn't to bring her harm.

'You and your stupid notions of being a hero. We are not made to be heroes Regina; we were made to lead. We were made to show people what we are made off. You have been letting those Charmings walk all over you. They've taken your son away.' Her mother began.

Regina could feel the ice cold grip of distain slowly creep into her system for those idiots again. The words of her mother showing her the reality she knew wasn't real, but sounded so familiar she couldn't help but believe it. But Emma.

'Emma-' Regina started, her voice rough and raw, she really shouldn't speak in her state, she could still feel the heavy breath of death on her neck. She should sleep, revel in the feeling Emma had given her, but her mother sounded so logical. Something that was the truth, something that had always been the truth. People hated her, she should use that and turn it into fear.

'Emma is just as bad as her parents and is only being nice to you, so she can take Henry away from you. Emma has just left with Rumple and _your son_ to go to New York. They have taken him with them without your approval. They thought because you are sick, for what you did for them, that they could just take your son away from you like that. Can't you see? Nobody will ever love you Regina, you have to make them fear you, it's the only way.

'They- They've taken Henry?' Regina stammers and feels her heart pound in fear. Was Emma rally only using her? She had told her that she would be right back, and now she is gone… How is that possible? Thirty minutes and the blonde woman that had taken her son, had lied to her.

She should have known! She should have known. Emma is a Charming. Nothing less and nothing more, and all they do is claim things that aren't theirs. She should have told Emma to run off. To leave her since she was only going to lie about it all. How could she have been foolish enough to trust someone like Emma?

'What do you want now Regina?'

'To get _my_ son back.'


	9. Chapter Nine

_**Hey guys, one day late, I know! But I needed to study for my very last test, which means that for now, there will be daily updates again! Until I will start my summer job, since it means that i might miss some days, but i will make that up with longer chapters. I ave already thought out where I want it to go now, and from here it will be different from my original story, since , in my eyes, i have missed a lot of potential for it by just going straight to the easy going romance. I am better at thinking up Angst so, that is where this story will head to first.**_

 _ **Happy reading!**_

 _ **x Muriel.**_

Chapter Nine

'I don't want to _be_ you.' Henry had uttered to her perhaps a week or three ago, and it still haunted her. Her never wished to be anything like her, he didn't see her as his hero like every other little child does with their parents. Even she had.

'I don't _want_ to be you.' She had confessed to her mother. A mother that had pushed her dream onto the shoulders of her daughter. She had wanted freedom of choice, she had wanted to be able to choose her own path. She didn't want to be pushed around anymore.

The memories haunt her nightmares as her mother had put her to sleep, she needed to heal Regina. First she needed to find where the death curse had found purchase, and then when she had found it she would need to extract it from her. But finding the curse was easier when Regina was asleep.

And so Regina had to resign herself to nightmares. Memories that had always chased her restful nights away, now all crowding up on her forcing her to relive every single one of them, and it was hell.

Her mind was warping any kind gesture Emma had given her to a malicious one, one that had all kinds of evil plans behind it. Emma had only been helping her because she was planning this escape with Henry all along.

She had made Regina think she mattered to them, to Henry and to Emma herself. Emma had shown care and interest in her wellbeing, something nobody had ever done in such a long time. Daniel and her father were probably the last ones that had ever cared for her. _Really cared._

Regina woke with a painful groan and found that her mother was standing over her with dark purple glowing around her hands as she held them over her body. The pain became more and more intense and she cried out in pain. One moment there were loud screams of pure pain leaving her throat and the next she was suddenly silent. Her mother had taken her voice so she would be quiet. Wouldn't be the first time that had ever happened to her.

She felt like she was being ripped inside out as every single bit if light magic was being pulled out of her. Every fibre in her body that dared to possess something of goodness or light, was being extracted from her and it hurt so badly she wished she could just feel the curse again, not this hell. Darkness filled her. The holes that her mother's magic was leaving by pulling any kind of magic out of her, the cure included, was now being filled by pure darkness.

The heavy corrupting magic flowing through her veins, pulsing through her system and suddenly the pain stopped. The pain was gone. Though, it also felt that every good deed she had every done in her life had been erased from her memory and from her heart. It felt so incredibly heavy with darkness she wasn't sure that she could hold it in her chest to let it keep beating.

'You could remove your heart Regina.' Her mother interrupted her musings with a wicked glint in her eyes. 'You could remove it and be just like me, powerful with nothing that can stop you. You'd stop being weak. We can get your son back and then get your well-deserved power back.' Her mother continued and it sounded so good. So logical to be doing.

Why hadn't she thought of that before. Removing her heart, that would be the answer right? She wouldn't be weak anymore. She would be strong. She would conquer again. Be the mighty queen she once was. And ultimately, she would get Henry back. She would show _her_ son how it could be for them all.

This time he would understand. She could make him see that this was the best path for him.

No! No, what was she doing? Her mother was taking control over her brain again, just like she had always managed to do. Her mother was using her like the usual puppet again. A marionette that she could use to gain back the power she had always wanted for herself but could never get, and thus had always gotten it through her daughter.

She wouldn't become her mother. She had once told her mother that she would, and could never become something like her mother. Someone that abuses their only child for their own gain. She had hurt Henry enough already, she could do something like this to him. She knew her son hated magic, and if she were to do this she would lose him.

But if she didn't do this, she would lose him as well. This was a battle that she couldn't possibly win. Emma had already taken him away from her by taking him to New York, thirty minutes after she had promised Regina not to leave her alone. _Promised_ het that she wouldn't be alone. That Emma and Henry both had wanted her to get better.

Well she was better. She was healed. She wasn't going to die anymore so she supposed that that promise was kept in a way, but not in the way she had wished. Not in the way that she had hoped that the promise could be fulfilled. She- She just wanted to be wanted for something other than power or a cunning plan to get what someone else wanted.

But she was just used again. Used and then thrown away. Like a child does when thy tire of their plaything. Was she just something amusing for Emma. To rub it in that as a villain she would never be able to have what she really wished for. Having a family, feeling at home here in the world and being wanted for just who she was, for what she meant to someone.

That was just something that wasn't meant for her.


	10. Chapter Ten

_**Hey, i am so sorry for the long break i took from ths story, but I am going to write a few chapters ahead this time, so that when i do not feel like writing or when I don't have the time, i can still i=give you your story. From now on i will be updating daily again. I hope you'll like it.**_

 _ **enjoy!**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

Chapter Ten

Regina looked at the flame dancing in her hands. Magic was still incredibly unstable around here, it was still something that mostly didn't work, even though she had breathed in the spells from her mother's old spell book.

The black magic that her mother had used to heal her, to pull out the death spell from Rumple, made her magic stronger, more stable. She felt her magic pulsing through her veins. The magic that would have wreaked havoc back in the Enchanted forest, made her desire to do it here bigger, and it felt like she was betraying Henry.

 _Henry isn't here_ , her mind told her and she took a deep breath to channel her magic and she teleported herself to a safe location in the woods nobody would see her, not even her mother, as she let flames burst from her fingertips. A wicked laugh ripped loose from her throat before she even knew what she was doing. God this felt so good. Being powerful again.

She would show that damned Emma Swan and her charming parents what she could do. They have taken Henry from her when she promised to change herself. They didn't trust in her and perhaps she should use that mistrust and show them what they should truly fear.

 _But you won't get Henry back like that._ Her mind warned again, and that made the flames shrink until they were all gone. Now she was just surrounded by smoke and burnt, black trees. She was surrounded by the death she always was surrounded by. She was a destructive force that was hard to stop, even she herself had trouble with it.

The big looming darkness made her desire to just let go and let the flames and darkness swallow everything whole grow with a rapidness she didn't even know she could feel. It was something that scared her in a way, because it meant she really was like her mother.

She was like her mother in a way that she had promised herself she would never become again. Not after what she had become in the Enchanted forest.

She decided that walking back, instead of using her magi again, was smarter. Yes, she would probably be a target for the hate of all the citizens of Storybrooke as she walked back to her mansion, but using magic again fuelled the darkness that she had to fight to deserve to have her son back.

When multiple people rushed over to the Queen to give them a piece of their mind and to do harm, they wanted the menace gone from this town, and have it be safe again. She could ignore most of them, to avoid them, but when someone approached her with a, rather cliché, pitchfork that she had no clue where they had even gotten it, she felt the hunger to harm grow again.

Gripping her violently, constricting her throat until she handled on instinct and had her hand within the chest of the person in the blink of an eye, and the pitchfork clattered to the ground.

Her instincts are something that are very hard to shake, and with the magic she possesses again, it is just her nature to rip out someone's heart out when they become a threat.

Of course that is the moment Emma comes riding back into town with Henry in tow in that yellow contraption she calls a car. Emma betrayed her trust. She left when she said she wouldn't. She took Henry from her when she said she wouldn't. She feels a new surge of white hot anger surge up from within her, mixed with a flare of pain. She had been foolish in trusting the woman.

Emma slammed the car door violently closed and was glad that she had already dropped Henry of at home and that she just had Gold in the back of her car, poisoned when she saw what was happening. At the sight of Regina with her hand in someone's chest instead her being home and sick like Emma had expected, she was surprised and disappointed in the woman.

She had really thought that she would change for their son. Henry wasn't safe with that woman. She could see that so clearly now. Henry was her son, because that woman…. That woman wasn't a mother anymore. Not if she would do that to anyone that crossed her path. Attacking innocent people wasn't something she ought to be doing anymore. This wasn't the Enchanted Forest. For the first time she felt like she was truly seeing the Evil Queen in her true form.

'Regina!' She cried out as she furiously approached the woman, with a fire in her eyes she didn't know she had left. Emma stomped towards her and shoved the woman back.

Regina had lost her focus when Emma had yelled her name and she had released the heart. When she was shoved back, her heeled feet lost their balance and when she felt the gravel of the road underneath her hands she felt that delicious fire licking at her fingers again, as darkness wreaked a havoc within her, and it was begging to be released.

'Ms. Swan, how kind of you to return to our quaint town once again.' Regina said sarcastically. The man whose heart she had just held was now fleeing down the street in fear of the woman that rose with a grace, no one but the infamous Evil Queen held.

Emma her heart was violently pounding in her chest when she saw Regina like this. 'I had to go. I didn't have a choice.' She found herself saying to defend herself from the remark that had left Regina her mouth. It wasn't fair of her to say that. She knew she had made a promise to Regina to stay, but Rumple had made her go to New York to find his lost son. She owed him, and she knew he would hurt Henry otherwise.

'You always have a choice, that's something your dear mother has told me a million times at least.' Regina said and tried to mask the hurt in her voice with anger. When she was sick, close to dying she trusted Emma not to leave her, but she did, and there was a loathing and mistrust between them again.

Something that hadn't been so bad since they first met. Perhaps she should make another seeping curse and this time give it successfully to Emma. She didn't truly want that. She would never hurt someone that Henry felt so closely connected to, that would do too much harm to her son. The darkness though, that really wanted to curse this whole damned town all over again. Have Henry to herself like she had a year ago. This just wasn't fair.

'Regina what the hell were you just doing.' Emma asked instead of replying to what Regina said. Was that hurt she had heard in her voice? No, she must have just imagined it. Something that close to a monster couldn't feel hurt anymore, could it? Could she?

'What did it look like I was doing?' Regina shot back and she didn't know why she didn't just tell Emma that she was provoked. He was going to kill her. This was just her defensive response to being approached by someone that wanted to harm her. Self-defence. But that would be her telling Emma she looked weak enough to be attacked by just some measly peasants, and that wasn't something they would have done if she looked strong enough. She wasn't going to be weak. Never.

'Henry will be devastated when I tell him what you just did.' Emma said. She wasn't going to say our son, because she didn't really felt like Regina had a say over him as mother anymore. Not like this. Henry wasn't Regina's son. Henry was hers. She felt a possessiveness pulse inside of her that she had never felt before, but she wasn't sharing her son anymore. Not with a woman like this.

Regina her face paled for a moment at the mention of her son. Her precious baby. 'No, I will not let you poison Henry against me.' She said with a disbelieving shake of her head. She didn't care if she looked weak like this. This was about her son. Anxiety and fear rushed through her and she just hoped to whatever gods were out there that it wasn't true, that Emma wouldn't tell Henry. She shouldn't have reacted the way she did, but her mother had gotten into her head.

'That's an interesting word choice, since _you_ already did.' Emma spit out with a humourless little smile on her face in slight disgust of the woman in front of her. Had she really felt something for this vile woman just before her trip? What had gotten into her? Emma turned away to walk back to her car with fury and anger bubbling inside of her.

'I want to see him; he deserves to hear my side of the story. He's my son.' Regina said as she marched after Emma. She wouldn't let Emma tell lies to Henry about her. These people were going to kill her if she hadn't done something. Yes, this move had been a mistake, but she could do better. She would become better. She was trying for him.

'He's not! He's _mine_!' Emma screamed back as she turned back to Regina. Did this woman really think after all that she had done, that she would still get a chance to even see Henry? Not a damned chance in hell. 'And after this, you're not getting anywhere near him!' Emma added as to rub salt in the deep wound she just created for Regina.

Regina's mouth fell open and emotion and pain were the only things she could feel. Well that, and betrayal. This woman that had made such promises to her before, now was taking her son away from her for a second time around. Even though she had the legal right to him, she had just lost her son. This wasn't fair.

A crowd had started to gather, as everyone wanted to see what the Saviour would do the Evil Queen. Would she be killed so that they all could be freed from the woman that had haunted them all? Would they finally see the death of the woman who deserved most to die?


	11. Chapter Eleven

_**Thank you all so much for the amazing reviews I am receiving for this fic! It warms me heart reading them and always makes me feel giddy when I receive an E-mail saying I got a review! For this chapter I know I skipped a day, but I wanted to get it right, and now I hope I did...**_

 _ **WARNINGS FOR MENTIONS OF ABUSE**_

 _ **Okay, I hope you will enjoy this chapter!**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

Chapter Eleven

'You can pretend all you want, but we _know_ who you are. And who you will _always_ be.' Emma growls as she looks at Regina with nothing but pure hatred and fury for this woman. This infuriating monster that has been tearing up her family from the day she was born. Separating her from her parents because of that damned curse.

Emma didn't even seem to notice that light magic seemed to be seeping from her fingers. Magic that was gripping Regina tightly. Magic that was creeping over Regina her skin in a way the magic of her mother used to do. Holding her in her place and paralyzing her with fear. Her mother. Her mother that was now here.

The magic made Regina forget her anger. Forget her fury, as pure fear and despair filled her veins when the magic of Emma started to tightly constrict her lungs from breathing in any air. Emma didn't even notice as she kept ranting on. Regina couldn't hear any of the words that were being said, as a familiar ringing started in her ears that only helped to heighten her fear.

She couldn't reach her own magic. Hurting Emma would mean having Henry loathe her for the rest of her life, and her fear wouldn't even let her make a slight connection to that lovely sense of power her magic gave her. She was the little girl again. The controllable laughing stock that could never have power or freedom. Not as long as she lived.

The crowd that had gathered around waited with a baited breath as they looked at Regina slowly not being able to breathe anymore, and Emma being so angry not even realising what her magic was doing. She probably didn't even really have a clue she had magic. The _idiot_ just kept on talking and talking until Regina gasped for breath. Tears of exhaustion starting to gather in her eyes as she had trouble holding on to consciousness as the life was squeezed out of her.

Emma her eyes widened and unclenched her fists, which immediately made Regina crumpled to the ground spluttering for air. 'oh my god, Regina, I'm sorry.' She breathed and tried to put a hand on Regina her shoulder. Yes, she was damned angry at Regina, but killing her was not something she had ever thought of doing, and would never do.

Regina flinched away from the touch in pure fear and she masked that with outrage. ' _don't_ touch me.' She hissed and she got up on unsteady feet as she still struggled to breathe. She felt suddenly terrified of the woman in front of her. She hadn't thought Emma could physically harm her. Not the in the way that she couldn't handle. And she could handle a lot. But this side of the woman that was on the side of _good_ , just tried to choke her to death. She could suddenly just see herself spluttering for breath as a little girl as her mother punished her and she disappeared from the street in a cloud of purple smoke.

When it was gone Emma felt guilt wrenching her gut. She had seen the pure fear in Regina's eyes. The fear of a child being abused time and time again and them looking back up at the abuser. God what the hell had she done?! She knew she had magic. Had discovered it when she felt a tingling sensation in her fingers and suddenly her cup of hot coco had fallen off of the counter, but it was light right? How could light magic hurt someone like this?

Or was it because Regina was _evil_ , and she was _good_ , so she could do anything to the ones that were categorized as Evil, because they deserved whatever they had coming?

No. Emma knew it didn't work like that, she knew because in the foster system, it didn't work like that. And that was the world where she came from. Not this fairy-tale bullshit. She could barely even think of the reason why she had been this angry at Regina.

She knew what the past of the woman was, she knew that all of these people had it out for her. The crowd was only now dissipating when they were sure that their Saviour was not going to end the life of the Queen. Maye she should have tried to listen to Emma.

She didn't even know this woman could be afraid. She felt so inhumane at times that she truly doubted that Regina could have any feelings. Faking the love, she showed Henry to try and seem like someone worth being cared about in a way. But now that Emma had seen this woman firstly sick and letting Emma in for help, and after that this deep amount of fear for what Emma could do to her, Emma was knocked down a peg.

She had thought that she was good, not in the perfect way her parents were, but she was good. She wouldn't just harm someone, there had been too much of seeing people get hurt in her history. She had seen enough abuse to promise herself never to become the abuser. But perhaps today she had broken that promise to herself.

Emma had scared Regina. The fearless Queen had almost been brought to tears because of her. God, what kind of a monster was she? She had let her emotions get ahead of her.

In her head she had called Regina a monster, not worthy of raising Henry. How could she? How could she take away the child which Regina had raised for ten years when she herself and her sorry ass couldn't even keep the kid.

She was incredibly angry at Regina, and didn't trust her probably, but how she had treated the woman just now had shocked her. She hadn't thought herself capable of hurting someone like that.

The look in Regina's deep, and ever so expressive eyes were haunting her as she stepped back in her car and drove to the pawn shop, deposited Gold there without a word as he gave her one of his knowing smirks. Before he could say anything to her though, she got back into her car and decided that going home to her son. The son she shared, and would always share, was the best remedy for now.

Emma didn't think she would ever be able to forget those eyes filled with fear as they haunted her in her sleep that night as well.


	12. Chapter Twelve

_**Hello my beloved readers, I only now noticed that this story reached over a hundred followers and I am so happy! I've been feeling quite down lately, but this really cheered me up and I am so grateful for Everyone who follows, reviews and favs this fic!**_

 ** _I hope you will enjoy this chapter as well, happy reading!_**

 ** _x Muriel_**

 ** _WARING, MENTIONS OF ABUSE_**

Chapter Twelve

Regina staggered as her heeled feet hit the ground of the marble floor of her house. Soft clicks of her heels echoing through the empty foyer and for a moment she let herself sink down against the wall and regain her herself. Calm her thundering heart down, but it seemed impossible. She wasn't safe anywhere anymore.

When she head the voice of her mother ring through the house she scrambled up with a semblance of grace that had embedded itself in her from childhood because of said voice she had heard. She swallowed hard and put on her usual mask she had on with her mother here. She didn't really favour anymore abuse today, she already had enough bruises from her mother on her body as is.

'Regina, dear, where were you?' Her mother asked and looked at her with a disapproving look like Regina had grown used to, and she felt a slight anger towards her mother burn. She of course couldn't say anything offensive or anything she actually wanted to say to her mother, lest she be disrespectful to the woman that had raised her.

'I was out in the forest testing out the limitations of magic here in this realm.' Answered instead, because it was true that she had tested it, just in a slight different way by testing how far she could go before she would lose control. So she wasn't lying to her mother, because her mother would know. She just left some of the truth out of the equation.

'Good. You need some practice with your magic, it looks sloppy.' Her mother spoke and seized her in. Taking in her appearance, but she couldn't see anything out of place so she accepted the disappointing view of her daughter before her. She had failed in raising the heartless creature she herself had become. Sad.

'Yes mother.' Regina supplied, because she knew her mother always wanted an answer. She knew what would happen if she didn't supply one and it wasn't pretty.

Regina made her way to her kitchen as she wanted to eat something to make her feel a little less queasy when she heard her mother enter.

'tut tut tut, Regina, haven't you already eaten quite a bit today? Wouldn't want your clothes to get a little too snug now, would we?' He mother asked and Regina dropped the food the was holding and threw it in the trash. Damn her mother. Why would she even let her mother dictate this for her? She should be able to shut her out, but she knew what would happen if it did. Her magic was weaker than that of her mother, she was certain.

Regina felt angry though, angry enough to make a move and she turned quickly and shot her arm out to remove her mother from the room so she could at least eat normally.

Her hand was frozen, then her whole being, for the second time this day and she felt even more anger flare up just at being at the mercy of someone for the second time dammit! Fear pulsed through her, mixed with the pure rage that kept growing. 'Let go of me mother, I'm not a child anymore.' Regina protested ad was surprised at how even and angry her voice sounded.

'Then stop acting like one. I had thought you would have grown out of these temper tantrums by now, but apparently I have to be disappointed by you yet again.' Her mother said and that dug deep. Wounds she had thought were closed were ripped back open ad she lay bare and vulnerable for her mother to hurt her more as she pleased.

'Let me go.' She repeated again, her voice wavered only a little but she wasn't going to back down and give in. Not with her mother like this. Not when her mother just viewed her as something weak to control. It wasn't fair.

Instead of letting go, her mother lifted her off of the kitchen floor and swept her across the room and let her collide with a wall. The pictures that hang upon the wall clattering down to the cold ground where Regina lay with pain emanating from her knee. A picture frame shattered. It was of her and Henry together when he was still oblivious to the curse, now ruined by the shards of glass that had cut through it.

'That will teach you for your insolence.' Her mother said angrily and then walked off. She hated to her her daughter this weak, but the girl had to learn, didn't she? This was what was best for Regina in the long run, and she knew it.

Regina got up and ignored the incredible pain in her knee as she held the ruined photograph in her hands. Of course she had more pictures of Henry and her together, but he was so proud of this one. She gingerly waved her hand over it and it slowly mended itself, but somehow it seemed the smile Henry wore had turned into a scowl.

 _I don't want you to use magic. Magic is evil._ She heard him say to her and she teleported the photograph to her desk in her office, because looking at it now would remind her of her mother, and of her son that hated her.

Emma would poison him against her. Would say that she was stealing another heart, that Regina was evil and a monster and that Henry should never want to see her again. Henry would listen to that of course, because Henry listened to everything that Emma would say. He adored her in a way the she longed to be adored by her son.

Regina tried to let healing magic pulse through her body to heal her knee from the injury it sustained because of her lovely mother. It didn't work and she took a deep breath to calm the anger she felt at being held down like this. She needed to either break from her hold of her mother, of convince her that she was strong. Dark. That she could participate in any plan her mother had thought of and help her with it to win Henry back that way and be powerful again.

She just didn't know yet what she should choose. Breaking free, or regaining power at the side of her mother.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

_**Hey, sorry for the late update, my internet was out. anyways, not to draw this out any longer, here is the new chapter for you! Thanks so much for the review and follows! keep them coming!**_

 _ **happy reading!**_

 _ **x Muriel**_

Chapter Thirteen

Emma had told Henry what had happened. Everything that had happened. He hadn't looked at her after that and it had already been a whole day. Mary Margaret and David kept reassuring her that he would turn around, that they would be fine together. He was just a little shocked, and so had her parents been, when she had confessed that she had magic. And then, that she had used said magic in a way to harm the adoptive mother of his son.

She had been seen so perpetually good. No matter her history and hat she did, she was good. She was the saviour, the daughter of, the perfect fairy tale about true love, Snow White and Prince Charming. Her genes were so obviously good, that she couldn't possibly do anything that would give her a name other than good.

So when they heard she had magic, Mary Margaret, David and Henry were shocked. Magic was something that they all saw as something incredibly bad, except when a fairy had it. Fairies could grant the wishes of the children of kings and queens that had been good, and deserved their wishes, deserved magic. Magic wasn't something their good daughter should be in possession off. It would corrupt her.

Emma felt guilty for how she had handled everything. She should have told Henry she had magic, because she knew his aversion to it. She should have told the two people that are apparently her parents, but instead she kept it to herself, and apparently now had used it for bad. She had used it to harm the other mother of her son. And Henry had gotten angry at that.

He had gotten angry at her for harming Regina when he claimed that he didn't care for his mother that had raised him anymore. Of course he still cared for her, she had raised him for ten whole years. She had done a good job at that, and Henry knew that. Somewhere inside of him, he knew that.

Two hours later Emma stood in front of the imposing white mansion again and she looked at the closed door with the golden numbers on it. 108 Mifflin Street. Why did this house always manage to make her so nervous? So anxious that she was going to do something wrong.

She was just here to listen to Regina her side of the story and thus not judge too quickly to give the woman a chance of explaining her actions. And perhaps if Emma had the guts she would apologize for what she had done. But that was still up for debate in her brain.

She knocked on the door and silently waited for something to signal that there was actually someone inhabiting this large mansion, that looked more like haunted one, than an inhabited one. When she heard the familiar click of heels approaching the door as a muffled sound she stood straighter and already prepared her half-assed smile.

It would be a low blow but she hoped that smiling in the way like their son would normally do, would grant her some bonus points with the woman she was about to face. One needed to be prepared when meeting with Regina.

Regina opened the door, heavily leaning on it after her mother had gotten furious at something not working out and has lashed out at her with dark magic. A magic that ate at her from the inside, in a way her magic couldn't heal. And she knew from experience that her mother's magic couldn't heal damage the magic itself had done. So she was pretty sure a few ribs were broken at the least. Perhaps more bones were weakened, but she would find that soon enough.

She was incredibly surprised to find the blonde mother of her son in front of her at her door. She hadn't expected to see her for a long while, not after what Emma had said to her after almost choking her to death with magic. Magic that the saviour didn't even know how to use properly, such wasted raw material. Potential squandered. Regina seized Emma in and looked at her with disgust and angry. She didn't want to see the woman here. She was reminded how weak she had been when Emma had used her raw magic, she hadn't even tried to defend herself. God she had been pathetic and a push over.

She wasn't going to be any of that now. She would show Emma she was strong. That she could easily win a magic battle with the saviour, that she was the one with the power here and not Emma. She was the Queen. The Evil Queen at that, she had to do better than being sad and miserable like this. She would get her son back from the damned Charmings.

'Hello Ms Swan.' Regina said her voice void of any emotions. Emotions would betray her now. She didn't even know what Emma was doing here. She first needed to know that before she could think of what her response to this visit should be. Getting overly angry at her now would be a mistake, since it would only give Emma evidence to keep Henry away from her. She wasn't going to give up her son over a mistake. She wouldn't.

'Hello Regina.' Emma said nervously and looked at Regina. She leaned too heavily on the door, and it look like she somehow was in pain. Had she done that with her magic? 'Uhm, you said you wanted to tell Henry your side of the story, and I'm here to listen to it now.' Emma added and scratched the back of her head and looked at Regina. She just hoped Regina wouldn't shut her down. Or you know kill her or something. That's when an older woman joined them, it looked like an older version of Regina… Was this Cora?


End file.
